NT may see power prices drop by Christmas

Northern Territorians could see a reduction in their power bills by Christmas, the Treasurer says.

Dave Tollner said the NT's power industry is now more transparent, accountable and efficient since sweeping reforms were put in place during the past two years.

Speaking the day before he handed down his third budget, he said there had been a turnaround in the electricity sector since his government instituted power hikes that caused tariffs to shoot up 30 per cent since 2012.

"The goal was always to get Power Water Corporation onto a sustainable footing.

"Unfortunately it had to be put on life support for a time, and unfortunately tariffs had to increase to keep it operating, but since being in government, since putting in place these reforms, we've seen more transparency, much more accountability by those organisations and we're seeing a greater level of reliability," Mr Tollner told reporters.

PWC was split into three entities last year: Power and Water Corporation to manage networks, Jacana Energy as the retail branch and Territory Generation.

Mr Tollner said the NT had gone for the longest period without outage "in history" since the reforms were instituted.

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"They're generating power at a much reduced rate and I would expect that somewhere down the track those efficiency gains will be passed on to consumers," he said, noting that it would take time as a wholesale market and operator were first established.

"My desire is before Christmas to see reductions in utility prices for Territorians," he said.

But he said the government did not regret putting put tariffs in the first instance, and said that both the government and consumers had to make large cash injections into the organisation.

"We did not have a choice; when we came to government PWC was in such a precarious position that something had to be done."

Deputy Opposition Leader Lynne Walker said it sounded like Mr Tollner "wants to be Santa Claus".

"I would just remind Dave Tollner that it was his government, on the promise of not putting up power prices but actually reducing the cost of living, within a couple of months had hiked up power rates by some 30 per cent," she said.